In recent years the building industry, and the housing industry portion in particular, frequently has been in a depressed state. While this is due to a variety of factors, a primary reason is the burgeoning costs of finished buildings and homes. A portion of these ever-increasing costs is the result of the high cost of labor which, added to increasing costs of different materials, results in final prices that frequently are prohibitive to a large number of prospective purchasers. Increasing numbers of such prospective purchasers are finding themselves priced out of the home market and their dream of owning their own home no longer is attainable.
In the building or assembly of buildings such as houses, many trades are involved, such as those who excavate and pour the foundation, masons and carpenters who construct the structure on the foundation, plumbers, electricians, roofers, and other specialties. In virtually every one of these trades, much of the labor cost is the result of time spent in taking measurements for the particular portion of the building or house assembly which is to be carried out by that trade. Frequently, the same or similar measurements are repeated by workers in different trades. Often, workers make the same measurement twice to minimize the possibilities of making mistakes. A consequence is that when all of this measuring time is added together, it amounts to a substantial part of the cost of the total labor cost in constructing the building or house.
If the measuring time could be eliminated or at least substantially reduced, the total labor cost of construction of buildings such as houses could be considerably reduced. This is particularly true in the case of developments where a large number of identical houses are constructed from a common plan within a relatively small geographical area. Large housing developments frequently have no more than 4 or 5 basic plans which are repeated throughout the development with a large number of houses for each plan being constructed within the development.
The use of common floor plans and other common features in housing developments has resulted in considerably reduced unit costs of houses which are constructed in such developments. A builder employs various workers in each of the trades, and houses in different stages of completion exist throughout the development with workers in one trade following directly behind workers in other trades in sequence as the houses are constructed. Because of the limited number of floor plans utilized, the workers relatively quickly become familiar with the particular design of the house on which they are working and much remeasurement time, which otherwise would exist, is eliminated. The necessity for making precise initial measurements at each stage of the construction for each house in the development, however, still exists.
Various attempts have been made in the past to provide factories which construct "pre-fabricated" houses. Construction of houses at points remote from their final erection site, however, is quite limited. A major limitation exists in the restrictions which are imposed on both width and height for moving pre-fabricated houses from a factory to the construction site. In addition, transportation costs are quite high; so that only relatively small pre-fabricated units have been found to be practical in the past. Most pre-fabricated homes are manufactured in the form of one or two sections of relatively narrow width and of limited design variations. Pre-fabricated or factory-built houses consequently do not constitute a very large percentage of the total housing market.
In an effort to provide more efficient and lower cost construction of houses in a housing development where a large number of identical or nearly identical houses are constructed, a temporary "factory" approach has been disclosed in two patents to Blachura, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,110,952 and 4,187,659. Both of these patents are directed to a home building method in which a large tract of land is subdivided into lots. A factory is provided (subsequently to be converted into a school or shopping center in which the houses are built on jacks for subsequent towing to the individual lots where the houses are lifted by a crane onto the foundations prepared on the lots. Since all of the houses are built in a single factory location, some economies of scale are attained. The manner in which the houses are constructed in the factory, however, is not disclosed in these patents; so that it may be assumed that conventional construction techniques, with the necessity of multiple measurements, are employed.
Another patent which is directed to construction of a house in which pre-fabricated wall panels are brought to the construction site for incorporation into the finished house in the patent to Waring, U.S. Pat. No. 3,397,494. This patent utilizes a frame set over the foundation on adjustable legs to provide a screed for use in leveling a poured floor which is formed within the outline of the frame and which is poured simultaneously with the foundation. The adjustable legs are incorporated into the foundation to provide support and reinforcement for the finished building. Pre-fabricated wall panels then are clamped onto the frame in the construction of the house or building to be erected on the frame.
A system directed to the simplification and/or elimination of multiple measurements in laying out identical apartments or offices is disclosed in the patent to LaMar, U.S. Pat. No. 3,816,931. This patent utilizes an architectural template in the form of dimensionally stable, full-size fabric sheet which is removably securable to the floor of the apartment or office. The sheet includes marking guides in the form of grommeted openings at selected layout positions. Markers in the form of stamps are inserted through the openings and aligned by a keyway to print patterns on the substrate in exact positional and angular orientation with the reference lines to guide workmen in the construction of interior walls, doors, plumbing, electrical, cabinetry and the like. Consequently, pre-fabricated cabinetry and fixtures may be utilized with little or no on-site modification. This results in considerable cost savings.
While the foregoing patents each provide some improvement over conventional home construction, the major shortcomings inherent in home construction still are present. The necessity for measuring and remeasuring, with its consequent time consumption, is not overcome. Although the patent to LaMar eliminates some measurements, the disclosure of this patent is limited to office buildings and apartment buildings for location of interior features of the already-constructed building shell.
It is desirable to provide a home building system which eliminates or substantially reduces the time required to measure and establish the location of various construction items to thereby minimize the labor time in the building of structures such as houses. Such a system also should overcome the disadvantages of the prior art discussed above and be as error-free as possible, so that the total labor cost of construction of buildings such as houses may be considerably reduced.